[MUD-Dev] Re: Thoughts

[J C Lawrence]

On Wed, 13 Jan 1999 19:01:23 -0600 
Koster, Raph<rkoster at origin.ea.com> wrote:

>> From: Caliban Tiresias Darklock

> It's not so much that the information about the cool stuff won't
> spread, but that i won't be "watercooler talk" so to speak. It
> won't be a subject of discussion, merely noted in passing. People
> like talking about bad things more than good, generally speaking.

Observation: Anger, and its minor cousins in resentment etc are
strong and motivating emotions that are easily shared (have you
*ever* worked at a place where they *didn't bitch about the
cafeteria food, even if it was pretty good?).  Excitement and the
other enthusiastic tones are harder to share and communicate
effectively, if only for the fact that many find enthusiasm harder
to create in themselves than the angry emotions (right now, could
you get really enthusastic about an arbitrary topic, or would it be
easier to be angry about it?).  This makes anger easier to agree
with than enthusiasm -- and agreement is the basis of communication.

>> The theory of player relativity: No statistic has meaning without
>> comparison. Unless you know where the other players are, where
>> you happen to be is completely irrelevant.

> What about benchmarking against the game system, such as what
> monsters you can kill?

cf Yospe's "noble deeds" (or some such term) record for each
character: a publicly accessable list of the great and difficult
acts performed by that player.

--
J C Lawrence                              Internet: claw at kanga.nu
(Contractor)                             Internet: coder at kanga.nu
---------(*)                    Internet: claw at under.engr.sgi.com
...Honorary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...